Although he finished several novels and short stories during the decade he lived in Key West, Ernest Hemingway spent a large amount of his time here fishing the waters and hanging out with a mob of friends, both local and imported.
A collection of photos, artifacts and Hemingway Key West memorabilia from the 1930s goes on exhibit July 6 in the Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House.
The exhibit, presented in conjunction with the Hemingway Days Festival, July 15 to 24, shows Key West's favorite son trolling local waters with Eddie "Bra" Saunders, Josie "Sloppy Joe" Russell, Burge Saunders, Charles Thompson and Toby Bruce— Key West locals who taught Hemingway fishing skills and served as partial templates for some of the characters in his fiction, notably Santiago in "The Old Man And the Sea" and Harry Morgan in "To Have and Have Not."
But Hemingway also hosted a string of visitors from the north who also shared adventures on his fishing boat, the Pilar and in some of the city's watering holes.
Among them were writers Archibald MacLeish, John Dos Passos and artist Waldo Pierce, a bearded bear of a man, who not only wrestled tarpon but also painted some of the local scenes.
"Hemingway, who with his second wife Pauline (nicknamed "Pilar") bought the old Asa Tiff home at 907 Whitehead St. in 1934, drew heavily on his experiences and friends in Key West from 1929 to 1939 and molded them into his literature," said Karen Mohrmann, exhibits coordinator for the Key West Art & Historical Society.
The Hemingway exhibit runs through September. The Key West Museum of Art & History is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition is sponsored in part by the Florida Department of State, Division of Historic Resources and First Union National Bank.